4 ms·

If Airbnb is so popular it demonstrates either there is a significant demand for travel lodging that is not being met, or significant inefficiencies in the trad

If Airbnb is so popular it demonstrates either there is a significant demand for travel lodging that is not being met, or significant inefficiencies in the traditional hotel market that is making Airbnb so much more competitive. Probably a bit of both, but maybe more of the latter. In theory, hotels should have a significant advantage over Airbnb. They can leverage economies of scale and are usually located in more tourist oriented areas of the city. I think the issue was that sort of like taxis hotels operated in a closed market and were competing against other hotels - sure motels existed but they were on the total other end of the cost-quality spectrum. They invested in fancy bars, and other stuff most people don't care about. Then, Airbnb comes along and now you could pay a fraction of the cost of a hotel and have much better lodgings. It's worth scrutiny to see what percentage of Airbnb listings are operated full time vs. actually operating them in a sharing-econony fashion. But at a fundamental level, if Airbnb is growing so much we also need to examine why standard hotels aren't working.

jseliger 8y ago
If only there were some way, some method, some technology, of increasing a given number of housing (or hotel) units on a given space; if that kind of technology existed, we could likely ameliorate all housing and hotel shortages. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-14/california-affordable-housing-is-no-mystery-just-build-more https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-14/califo... Such a dream will likely have to remain deferred, however, because obviously no such technologies exist.
- Tempest1981 8y ago
  Builders in San Jose are saying that it's hard to make a profit, due to high materials and labor costs. They can't get construction loans, even for market-rate units.
ranbumo 8y ago
I wonder whether demand in a city like Barcelona can ever be met without compromising it as a city and zoning a lot of the city centre for hotel usage .. Or whether there's a good alternative to just outright banning Airbnb when rent increases so much that locals can't afford to live in most of the city anymore.
- geezerjay 8y ago
  > and zoning a lot of the city centre for hotel usage .. This assertion makes no sense. Barcelona is covered by an excelent public transportation network, including national, regional, and commuter railway services right in the city center, and there are entire blocks that are still unocuppied or including vacant old warehouses. Barcelona's main problem is its populist government that uses anti-tourism political stunts to cater to radical socialist and anarchist pressure groups while screwing with the local's lives.
  - nadersith 8y ago
    Not sure if you are from Barcelona, but that is not right. Barcelona is, like Madrid, a city crowded by tourists which, obviously, look for the cheapest choice. That is legit, of course. The problem is when all owners want to make the most from their buildings, sharing them with Airbnb. This increases rent fares in most of the neighborhoods (as no houselord wants to earn less asking for a monthly quote instead of the amount earned with Airbnb) , and obligates people who live and work there to move outside. That is why the government of the city council took actions to attempt to reverse the situation.
    - geezerjay 8y ago
      The only way that investments in domestic rentals targetting the touristm market can compete with large-scale industrial offers provided by hotels is if the lodging market has been stifled by regulation. Housing in Barcelona is far from cheap and buying an apartment to rent out as a pseudo hotel room is only a remotely viable investment if supply is kept artificially low by rejecting any proposal to build sorely needed hotels. This sad political state of affairs only serves the interests of incumbent hotel operators and real estate speculators by ensuring that their past investments remain exceptionally proffitable and no competitor can enter the market to pick up the slack. Radical anti-tourism anarchist groups play the role of useful idiots to help preserve this state of affairs, but the real source of the problem is quite obvious, and so is the solution: allow the construction of new high-capacity hotels and provide incentives to maximize hotel occupancy, such as taxing vacant hotel rooms, so that repurposing apartments as pseudo-hotel rooms ceases to be an attractive investment. Until this problem is actually understood, instead of blindly swallowing political propaganda, it won't simply go away,no matter how much noise and publicity stunts anarchist groups make regarding this issue.

jseliger 8y ago

If only there were some way, some method, some technology, of increasing a given number of housing (or hotel) units on a given space; if that kind of technology existed, we could likely ameliorate all housing and hotel shortages. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-14/california-affordable-housing-is-no-mystery-just-build-more https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-03-14/califo... Such a dream will likely have to remain deferred, however, because obviously no such technologies exist.

Tempest1981 8y ago
Builders in San Jose are saying that it's hard to make a profit, due to high materials and labor costs. They can't get construction loans, even for market-rate units.

ranbumo 8y ago

I wonder whether demand in a city like Barcelona can ever be met without compromising it as a city and zoning a lot of the city centre for hotel usage .. Or whether there's a good alternative to just outright banning Airbnb when rent increases so much that locals can't afford to live in most of the city anymore.

geezerjay 8y ago
> and zoning a lot of the city centre for hotel usage .. This assertion makes no sense. Barcelona is covered by an excelent public transportation network, including national, regional, and commuter railway services right in the city center, and there are entire blocks that are still unocuppied or including vacant old warehouses. Barcelona's main problem is its populist government that uses anti-tourism political stunts to cater to radical socialist and anarchist pressure groups while screwing with the local's lives.
- nadersith 8y ago
  Not sure if you are from Barcelona, but that is not right. Barcelona is, like Madrid, a city crowded by tourists which, obviously, look for the cheapest choice. That is legit, of course. The problem is when all owners want to make the most from their buildings, sharing them with Airbnb. This increases rent fares in most of the neighborhoods (as no houselord wants to earn less asking for a monthly quote instead of the amount earned with Airbnb) , and obligates people who live and work there to move outside. That is why the government of the city council took actions to attempt to reverse the situation.
  - geezerjay 8y ago
    The only way that investments in domestic rentals targetting the touristm market can compete with large-scale industrial offers provided by hotels is if the lodging market has been stifled by regulation. Housing in Barcelona is far from cheap and buying an apartment to rent out as a pseudo hotel room is only a remotely viable investment if supply is kept artificially low by rejecting any proposal to build sorely needed hotels. This sad political state of affairs only serves the interests of incumbent hotel operators and real estate speculators by ensuring that their past investments remain exceptionally proffitable and no competitor can enter the market to pick up the slack. Radical anti-tourism anarchist groups play the role of useful idiots to help preserve this state of affairs, but the real source of the problem is quite obvious, and so is the solution: allow the construction of new high-capacity hotels and provide incentives to maximize hotel occupancy, such as taxing vacant hotel rooms, so that repurposing apartments as pseudo-hotel rooms ceases to be an attractive investment. Until this problem is actually understood, instead of blindly swallowing political propaganda, it won't simply go away,no matter how much noise and publicity stunts anarchist groups make regarding this issue.